Hanging Heaton march into cup semis and keep double hopes alive

Andrew Hunt

Hanging Heaton produced a superb second half fight back to defeat Moldgreen 18-14 as they marched into the Pennine League Cup semi-finals last Saturday.

Hanging Heaton are unbeaten in the Pennine League and on course to clinch the Division Two West title but were made to work hard to book a place in the semi-finals against the Huddersfield side.

The match was switched to the state of the art 4G pitch at Dewsbury Rams after Moldgreen’s Fartown pitch was unfit but the afternoon began on a sombre note to mark the passing of the mum of one of Hanging Heaton’s younger players at the age of just 43.

Both sides paid tribute with a minute’s silence followed by a minute’s applause, while all the players wore red armbands in her honour.

Moldgreen arrived fired up with a much improved side compared to the previous two league meetings and raced into an early 8-0 with a converted try and penalty goal.

Hanging Heaton had begun slowly and were struggling to break through the enthusiastic Moldgreen defence .

The completion rate was poor in the first half and Heaton only managed to get into the visitors half on two occasions, one of which saw Aaron James score an unconverted try.

Soon after, Moldgreen grabbed a second converted try to lead 14-4 and words of encouragement were needed during the half-time interval.

Hanging Heaton began to complete their sets and it wasn’t long before they took play close to the opposition line.

The ball was moved to the short side, where a cut out pass allowed William Brooke to go over in the corner for an unconverted try.

The home side attacked again and created a gap, where Ryan Hardwick was on hand to receive the inside offload and score between the posts and Declan Tomlinson converted to level at 14-14.

With 10 minutes remaining, play was moved wide for Danny Brown to dive over in the corner and edge the home side ahead.

Moldgreen attempted to hit back late on and gave the Hanging Heaton side a real scare but a terrific defensive effort saw them hold out to set up a home semi-final against Underbank Rangers this Saturday.